The invention relates to a projectile, particularly to a practice round, with a projectile body including a hollow ogive (cup-shaped head) that bursts upon striking the target. This ogive contains dye, particularly a colored powder, whereby the marking material is released to mark the strike point when the projectile strikes the target and when the ogive bursts.
In a practice round, e.g., a practice projectile or a practice bomb that itself does not include live explosive, it is important to mark the strike point on the target so that optimal practice results may be obtained.
For this, the projectile includes at its tip an ogive into which the marking material, e.g., a reddish dye powder, is inserted. The ogive is made of a material such as plastic that bursts when it strikes the target, releasing the dye powder. The dye is scattered for a certain radius around the strike point, and is also scattered by the wind, thus showing the strike point clearly.
Projectiles of the type discussed here are, for example, mid-caliber projectiles (40 mm) that are belt-fed and that are fired from a rapid-fire cannon in series.
When handling such projectiles, the ogive of a projectile in the belt occasionally breaks open when it strikes an object, at least partially releasing the marking material and contaminating other projectiles. When this occurs the affected projectiles in the belt must be replaced. It is even worse if, for example, the projectile is improperly aligned in the rapid-fire cannon. In such case, the ogive of the projectile may be broken within the chamber, leading to contamination of the weapon, which must subsequently be cleaned, resulting in lost time. Also, such a misalignment of a live round fired from that weapon may lead to a loading jam.